As a huge Yankees fan for my entire life, I follow this team very closing and I'm not afraid to say I did not like a move (such as the signing of Alex Rodriguez after he opted out). This is MY outlook on the team this year.

Catcher: This is a very tricky position. After having Jorge Posada here for a long time, we now have Russell Martin and Jesus Montero (or maybe Molina from what I've heard). Martin can be a good catcher when healthy an is an obvious upgrade defensively. Montero I feel would be better as a DH or stay in the minors. Fransico Cervilli, who will be back in May will add stability to the back-up catcher role, as he has done a nice job in the past.

First Base: Mark Teixera will have a bounce back year average wise, which should slightly increase his RBI and Runs total too. He is also very durable so the Yankees are fine here.

Second Base: Robinson Cano. Nothing else to say. He is great defensively and he has become an huge offensive player. He could be a serious runner for the MVP this year.

Shortstop: Derek Jeter. The face of the franchise should have a bounce back year as he gets 3000+ hits. His defense will decline but he is still an important piece for this team.

Third Base: A-Rod. he will have another typical year with all the hoopla, but I expect a slight increase in HRs and RBIs according to his trends.

Outfield: This is a good group of OFs. They have Nick Swisher who has a good arm and a nice power bat. he will lose in average but he should still hit a respectable number. Brett Gardner is the Yankees speed guy and since he may hit leadoff more often, he has a chance to get over 60 steals. If he stays healthy, he may also hit around .300. Defensively, he fine. Now the question mark I have is Curtis Granderson. I do not think he is a good fit but that just me.

Reserves: This is a good bench, better in years past. The Yankees also have enough guys in the minor to bring up if they are not fine with the guys they have right now.

Starting Pitching: I beleive they made a mistake keeping the soft tossing Freddy Garcia in the rotation since teams like the Red Sox and Rangers will whack him around. I thought Bartolo Colon even with injuries and inning limit should have been the guy. Ivan Nova should surprise a lot of guys and so should A.J. Brunett. He had a good first half last year, before blowing up completely. C.C. sabathia is still the ace and Phil Hughes may struggle if he can't find some velocity. The Yankees have a lot of young guys in the minors that can pitch and I expect one or two of them to come up this season to get their licks in the majors.

Bullpen: The 8th/9th inning guys are not a problem. I did not like the spending on of Rafael Soriano but he is good insurance. Mariano Rivera is still the BEST CLOSER EVER, so he will maintain his part. Robertson and Chamberlain will be good 6th/7th inning guys and can eat up a couple innings if guys are taxed. I don't like Loogan or Marte as a lefty specialist but it is a good thing Robertson has great numbers vs lefties.

Prediction: They will finish 1st in the AL EAST. When it comes playoff time, they will go as far as their top 3 SPs take them. Now that I can't predict just yet.

Drowsy fans of the 28 other big league teams no longer have to feel alone.Someone in power also thinks these interminable Red Sox and Yankees games are taking too darned long. After sitting behind home plate for three hours and 46 minutes on Sunday night, the patience of umpire Cowboy Joe West finally boiled over in Thursday morning's editions of the Bergen Record. The veteran of 32 years labeled the turtle pace maintained by both clubs as "a disgrace to baseball" and said the players refuse to cooperate with the umpires when it comes to time-saving measures like staying in the batter's box and limiting trips to the mound.

From the Bergen Record:

"They're the two clubs that don't try to pick up the pace," said West, chief of the umpiring crew that worked the three-game series in Boston. He was the home plate umpire Sunday. "They're two of the best teams in baseball. Why are they playing the slowest?

"It's pathetic and embarrassing. They take too long to play."

He says the umpires are committed to shortening the time of all games and that intention has come through during this Red Sox-Yankees series as several batters were denied requests for a time out. Did it work? Well, Wednesday's 10-inning affair clocked in at 3 hours, 21 minutes. Still not a neat and tidy affair, but much closer to a big league average that hovers around 2 hours and 50 minutes these days.

I'm willing to bet that the league office isn't happy over West publicly airing such strong comments. Red Sox and Yankees games are always going to take a little longer because both camps are big advocates of their batters taking pitches and working their way into deep counts. Their lineups are also loaded with sluggers and, hey, all those hits take time.

If Joe West has a problem working a little more than 4 hours to umpire the best rivalry in all of sports, then maybe he should get an 8hr job like everyone else and then we'll see how much he complains.

The throng of media members around the makeshift stage seemed impenetrable, but Harlan Chamberlain motored his way through all of the cameras and notepads anyways. Reaching a blue barrier, he stopped his scooter, strained to look over a crowd of world champion Yankee ballplayers and tried to get a glimpse of his son. When that proved useless, he simply resorted to his considerable vocal chords.

"Jaaaaaaahba!" he yelled. "Jaaaaaaaaaahba!"

Harlan said his son's name a few more times, then spied A.J. Burnett in the crowd.

"Burnett!" he said. "Can you get my son!"

Burnett could and a few moments later, Joba Chamberlain put down the giant blue Yankee flag he had been waving up on stage. The big Yankees pitcher hopped off the stage, disappeared from the view of the Fox cameras and quickly made a beeline for his father. When they came together, they wrapped each other in a huge rocking bearhug.

It wasn't long before both were crying.

They said the same thing over and over.

"We did it, dad," Joba said.

"We did it," Harlan said.

"We did it," Joba said.

"We did it," Harlan said.

And on and on. They held tight for almost a minute. Their eyes were red when they let go.

You see the Yankees' $200+ million payroll and it's easy to get cynical. Same goes for their $1.5 billion new stadium, the seats that cost more than the average mortgage payment, the steroid controversies involving some of their team members and all the endless hype and hooey about mystique, aura and all the Yankee legends and ghosts.

But then you see this very simple and very real scene of a 24-year-old pitcher sharing the hug of a lifetime with his dad and you remember that those father-son relationships — one of the only things that really matter — are at the very heart of this great game that we love.

The same dynamic was on display everywhere at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night. Way up in the upper deck, a dad tossed his little son into the air whenever Hideki Matsui came through (which was often). A mid-20s hipster sitting next to them made sure to ask one of my co-workers to snap a photo of he and his pops with his grainy cell phone camera. CC Sabathiadid his postgame interviews with his little son on his shoulders the whole time.

Their story has been told often since Joba became a pitcher with the Yankees. Harlan was stricken with polio as a child and his health problems have confined him to the trademark scooter that gets him recognized by Yankee fans everywhere. Despite his limitations, he raised both Joba and his sister in Nebraska and provided for them while working in a prison. The sad story of Joba's mother is sadly well-known — she's facing 20 years in jail for a drug charge — but he's always had the love and support from an extraordinary father. They call each other their best friends. It's impossible for them to be any closer.

If for some reason you're searching for the terms of the foodstuffs wager the New York and Anaheim mayors have placed on the outcome of the ALCS, here's some bad news for you.

No bet was ever made.

According to the New York Daily News, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's people reached out to Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle's people last week to see what they'd like to put on the line for the traditional food-related bet between proud and esteemed civic leaders.

New York's proposal, however, was met with a simple "thanks, but no thanks" when Anaheim declined the offer. Pringle's office confirmed that the idea of the wager had been offered from the East, but did not offer any reasons why they wouldn't participate in what seems like a completely innocuous bet.

That, of course, leads us to make up a few theories for the refusal on our own.

1. Pringle was worried that none of Anaheim's cuisine would match up to Momofuku's fried chicken from New York. (Or maybe he also thinks that rich East Coasters acting as if fried chicken was discovered and perfected in Manhattan is the stupidest thing ever.)

2. After the team's name change from "Anaheim" to "Los Angeles," Pringle remains steamed and figures it's up to Antonio Villaraigosa to handle these requests.

3. Pringle ran for re-election on a platform that promised an end to cliché playoff stories.

4. The Republican mayor got a call from Fox head Rupert Murdoch and was told that if he enjoyed his job he wouldn't pull for any outcome involving the Angels in the World Series.

5. Anaheim's FedEx food budget was drained by all of those express shipments to Chicago in 2005 and to Boston in 2004, 2007 and 2008. He's simply tired of paying out.

Still, if you're heartbroken over this news (or are a television crew looking to fill 15 seconds of airtime), no need to worry. Mayor Bloomberg is currently enjoying a case of Honeycrisp apples and a case of beer from the Minneapolis mayor and the heads of Philly and Los Angeles have placed cheesesteaks and Pink's hot dogs on the line for the NLCS.